Search Results (31)

To better understand the United States at the end of the nineteenth ...

To better understand the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, this interdisciplinary lesson integrates analyzing historical primary resources with literary analysis. Students work in groups and express themselves creatively through a multi-media epic poem. The artistic models for the students' multi-media epic poem are Walt Whitman's Song of Myself (1855) and Hart Crane's The Bridge (1930). These epic poets capture, interpret, and give meaning to their particular times and places. Students look to do the same with the year 1900, relying upon relevant primary resources -- sound recordings, images, text, and their own creative and interpretative voices.

Ever wonder what women were doing during the 1800s or what is known as the antebellum period of United States history? Men are well represented in our history books as they were the powerful, educated leaders of our country. Women, on the other hand, rarely had opportunities to tell their stories. Powerful stories of brave women who helped shape the history of the United States are revealed to students through journals, letters, narratives and other primary sources. Synthesizing information from the various sources, students write their impressions of women in the Northeast, Southeast, or the West during the Nineteenth Century.

Examine the tension experienced by African-Americans as they struggled to establish a ...

Examine the tension experienced by African-Americans as they struggled to establish a vibrant and meaningful identity based on the promises of liberty and equality in the midst of a society that was ambivalent towards them and sought to impose an inferior definition upon them. The primary sources used are drawn from a time of great change that begins after Reconstruction's brief promise of full citizenship and ends with the First World War's Great Migration, when many African-Americans sought greater freedoms and opportunities by leaving the South for booming industrial cities elsewhere in the nation. The central question posed by these primary sources is how African-Americans were able to form a meaningful identity for themselves, reject the inferior images fastened upon them, and still maintain the strength to keep "from being torn asunder." Using the primary sources presented here, look for answers that bring your ideas together in ways that reflect the richness of the African-American experience.

This lesson invites students to search and sift through rare print documents, ...

This lesson invites students to search and sift through rare print documents, early motion pictures, photographs, and recorded sounds from The Library of Congress. Students experience the depth and breadth of the digital resources of the Library, tell the story of a decade, and help define the American Dream.

Reservation Controversies covers historic issues dealing with American Indian Reservations in the ...

Reservation Controversies covers historic issues dealing with American Indian Reservations in the 1870s. This experience uses problem based learning (PBL), in which the student is confronted or faced with a real world problem which has no preconceived right or wrong answers. Using various teaching/learning strategies, which include brainstorming, role playing, and oral presentations, the students access primary sources and other background sources to arrive at a recommendation, based on the information. The teacher, librarian, and other support staff act as guides or advisors through most of the process.

In 1782 Jean de Crevecoeur published Letters from an American Farmer in ...

In 1782 Jean de Crevecoeur published Letters from an American Farmer in which he defined an American as a "descendent of Europeans" who, if he were "honest, sober and industrious," prospered in a welcoming land of opportunity which gave him choice of occupation and residence. Students will look at life histories from the interviews of everyday Americans conducted by Works Progress Administration officials between 1936-1940 to see if his definition still holds true in this country 150 years later. Students will conclude by working toward a modern definition.

This is a lesson in which students take a trip around the world in 1896 using an online collection of 900 images. The collection includes photos of railroads, elephants, camels, horses, sleds and sleighs, sedan chairs, rickshaws, and other types of transportation, as well as city views, street and harbor scenes, landscapes, and people in North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania.

This lesson relates to the westward movement in the United States in ...

This lesson relates to the westward movement in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Students analyze the role that gunfighters played in the settlement of the West and distinguish between their factual and fictional accounts using American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 - 1940.Billy the Kid alias, William H. Bonney, alias Henry McCarty, alias Kid Antrim, etc. is an example of the typical gunfighter. He was born in the 1850s and died in 1881 when he was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Billy serves as the focus of the lesson.

This activity explores how and why war has been photographed and affords ...

This activity explores how and why war has been photographed and affords students an opportunity to see bias within war reporting. In addition to analyzing war photographs, students learn about Mathematics and Statisticsew Brady's process for photographing the Civil War and how photographic equipment has improved over time.

The Civil War through a Child's Eye lesson focuses on the use of historical fiction and primary sources to expand students' perceptions of the Civil War era. Literature and photographic images reflect, communicate, and influence human perspectives of historical events. Specifically, the unit helps students to view the Civil War era through a child's eye, rather than from an adult perspective.Following an introduction to the Civil War using photographic, daguerreotype, and non-fiction sources, students read Paul Fleischman's Bull Run in Readers Theater format. Next, students examine and interpret primary source images of Civil War era children. Then, students reveal their understanding of a child's perspective in a literary portrait. In sum, this lesson integrates reading, writing, and US history standards.

This is a two-part teaching unit about the controversy among conservationists over ...

This is a two-part teaching unit about the controversy among conservationists over a proposal to turn part of Yosemite National Park into a dam to furnish water to San Francisco. The first part explores the history of the conservation movement in general, while the second links to primary records, such as Congressional debates, of Hetch Hetchy itself.

This lesson plan casts students in the role of politically active citizens ...

This lesson plan casts students in the role of politically active citizens in 1787, when the Federal Convention in Philadelphia presented the nation with a new model of government. Students, using primary documents from American Memory, produce a broadside in which they argue for or against replacing the Articles of Confederation with the new model of the Constitution.

This is a lesson in which students examine songs, interviews, and photos ...

This is a lesson in which students examine songs, interviews, and photos of migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression and then create a scrapbook from the point of view of a migrant worker. Students use photos and recordings of migrant workers to create captions, letters, and songs. This lesson can be particularly useful when students are learning about the Great Depression or reading The Grapes of Wrath.

Students frequently echo sentiments such as, "The government is too big," or ...

Students frequently echo sentiments such as, "The government is too big," or "The government should make welfare mothers pay for their own needs." It seems that many citizens, high schoolers included, have begun to believe in reduced government combined with increased personal responsibility. Such sentiments suggest a move away from belief in the welfare state, created largely by the New Deal in the 1930s and reinforced by the "Great Society" legislation of the 1960s. By using the American Memory's American Life Histories, 1936-1940 documents, personal interviews, and the Library of Congress's online legislative information (THOMAS), students will be able to gain a better understanding of why the government takes care of its people and how this type of welfare state started. Armed with this knowledge, they can then evaluate the current need of government programs, such as welfare, Medicare and Social Security, on the federal and state level.

This lesson plan will result in imaginary Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviews ...

This lesson plan will result in imaginary Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviews similar to those found in American Life Histories, 1936-1940 of American Memory of the Library of Congress that demonstrate students' interpretation of the question, "Was the New Deal North Carolina's 'Reconstruction'?" All background knowledge on the Reconstruction era should have been completed prior to the introduction of this project.A written WPA report on an imaginary North Carolina resident who lived during the Reconstruction and Depression eras is the product of this assignment. Students must complete research of the American Life Histories, 1936-1940, select an occupation for future research, and explore additional print and electronic sources. The "interview" must be historically accurate, support a thesis that answers the question, and include an appropriate sensory illustration.

This is a 4-week American history unit for high school. Students conduct ...

This is a 4-week American history unit for high school. Students conduct oral history interviews, analyze photos, evaluate the relevance and accuracy of primary and secondary sources, discuss changes in immigration and migration over time, and more.

In the late 1800s, the United States supported an educational experiment that ...

In the late 1800s, the United States supported an educational experiment that the government hoped would change the traditions and customs of American Indians. Special boarding schools were created in locations all over the United States with the purpose of "civilizing" American Indian youth . Thousands of Native American children were sent far from their homes to live in these schools and learn the ways of white culture. Many struggled with loneliness and fear away from their tribal homes and familiar customs. Some lost their lives to the influenza, tuberculosis, and measles outbreaks that spread quickly through the schools. Others thrived despite the hardships, formed lifelong friendships, and preserved their Indian identities. Through photographs, letters, reports, interviews, and other primary documents, students explore the forced acculturation of American Indians through government-run boarding schools.

This site provides primary source documents that students use to examine the ...

This site provides primary source documents that students use to examine the working conditions of U.S. laborers at the turn of the century and to develop their own answers to a question: Was there a need for organized labor unions?

This lesson invites students to read personal accounts of natural disasters in ...

This lesson invites students to read personal accounts of natural disasters in the U.S. during the late 1800s and early 1990s -- the great Chicago fire (1871), the Johnstown Flood (1889), the San Francisco earthquake and fire (1906), the Titanic (1912), the 1918 Flu Epidemics, the Dust Bowl (1930s-40s). Students research a disaster and create a presentation in which they assume the role of a witness to the event.